Broadcasting
House
A potted history

The
British Broadcasting Corporation's headquarters are in the Portland-stone
clad building at the top of Regent Street in central London. It is a magnificent
building, built with Art Deco features in the 1930s, and the distinctive
front view of the building is a worldwide icon for the BBC.

I joined
the BBC in 1969, and have worked in BH since the mid 1970s. I was Broadcast
Duty Manager when I retired in 2005, and the nature of the job was such
that I and my immediate colleagues probably knew more about what goes
on in the building than anyone else on site. Its history is something
that we see every day, but perhaps know less about. These pages are my
attempt at pulling together a view of the site from before BH was built
- I'll leave others to document the history of the building from then
until now.

Although
time hasn't allowed me to fulfil my original ambition of getting a full
description of the building as it was at the time of opening, I hope to
add to this in the future - so this section of the site is definitely
work in progress.

BBC
historians (most notably in my view, Asa Briggs and Edward Pawley), have
described many aspects of its construction and its use. I have used their
material, plus anything else I can get my hands on - I just hope it proves
interesting (the many emails I've had suggest that it has done, and please
let me know if you have anything you
can add).

Oh yes
... why, you may ask, do I start the BBC's history in 1214? Because the
shape of the area, its streets and other buildings, are all in one way
or another dependent on what went before.

And why stop at 1932?
Because there's a lot more information elsewhere than I can put together here ... however,
I have added a section about the BBC at
war. It is very much a "work in progress", but it does have some information
on the Stronghold at Broadcasting
House.